| John Adam Merold, browned eyed and red haired, was born in Tower
City, Pennsylvania on February 26, 1901. The son of a violin playing
Pennsylvania Dutch coal miner (Pat Merold), John Adam Merold would
move out of Pennsylvania to Akron, Ohio while still quite young. There
he would grow up and marry Marie Edith Spalding of the Akron Spaldings.
John being a Lutheran, and Marie a devout Catholic, the Church insisted
John convert to Catholicism before the marriage. The Church also dictated
John must raise all Marie's future children strictly Catholic. Even
with these concessions, the marriage was forbidden within the church
itself. John and Marie married instead in the church rectory. Together
John and Marie had four children, three boys and a girl, and all Catholics.
John Adam Merold worked at General Tire in Akron, Ohio, in final
inspection. As a grown man, John recalled walking down to the war
office during WWII, wanting to volunteer, only to be turned away.
The reason given: there were just too many Merold men from the Ohio
family serving at the time. John, an avid gardener and bird watcher
all his life, was simply mad about his roses. In 1977, John Adam
Merold lost his beloved wife to a stroke. He would follow her some
thirteen years later in April of 1990. Until that time, his family
and roses kept him company. Even in his 80's, John Adam was out
every day, in every season, keeping his rose garden beautiful and
waiting for the next spring. John and Marie are buried together
in the Rose Hill Burial Park, in Akron, Ohio.
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